Box2D 3.0 Released

Box2D version 3.0 has been officially released after 18 months of development. The new version introduces significant changes, including a complete overhaul of continuous collision and response, utilizing a hybrid speculative and time of impact approach. This design eliminates the need for polygon skins, supports rounded polygons, and minimizes movement pauses. The API has been redesigned to consist solely of enums, structs, and functions, moving away from C++ classes, which enhances readability and reduces the risk of memory issues. The library has transitioned from C++ to C, which has improved performance and debugging capabilities, although it presented some challenges due to MSVC's limitations. Performance enhancements focus on multithreading and SIMD, with v3 reportedly being more than twice as fast as v2.4. New features include the addition of capsules, a Soft Step solver for improved stability, and enhanced precision for larger simulation worlds. The release also emphasizes the importance of community feedback during the development process. A video celebrating the release has been made available, and there is an invitation for sponsorship to support ongoing development.

- Box2D 3.0 introduces a new collision response system and a redesigned API.

- The library has transitioned from C++ to C, enhancing performance and debugging.

- Version 3.0 is reported to be over twice as fast as its predecessor, v2.4.

- New features include capsules, a Soft Step solver, and improved simulation precision.

- Community feedback played a crucial role in the development of v3.